That Grisly Animated Film Ending That Stays With Fans
Among every mature cartoon movies I’ve personally watched, nothing has stuck with me as much as the dread-soaked conclusion of a explicitly bloody and deeply subversive film from 2022 Unicorn Wars.
Back in 2015’s, the Spain-based filmmaker created a grim, somber and often savage universe with a few small , forlorn hints of optimism.
While Unicorn Wars feels like it originated from an impulse to push the medium even more, the filmmaker stated that it was actually an attempt to express a global, multicultural theme regarding “the mutual source of every conflict.”
This theme is expressed by means of a group of brightly hued teddy bears , openly modeled after a popular line of lovable figures.
Growing up in a society built around aggression and the military-industrial complex, many of these animals are consumed by killing the mythical beasts, due to a holy book that tells the bears they were once kings of the forest, until the unicorns expelled them.
A few haven’t fully accepted the brainwashing, , would rather sample narcotics or fornicate in the woods.
In contrast to their friendly equivalents, these colorful critters display sexual organs , clear sex drives.
For one notably brutal, skeptical animal, the bear named Bluey, the conflict with unicorns becomes a route to control — and specifically to authority above his more tender, kinder brother the bear Tubby.
The character acts as a tormentor and an obvious antisocial figure , and when horror dominates his group and claims his comrades individually, he grabs more and more influence for himself, via progressively bloody, destructive ways.
At the same time, these mythical beings are experiencing their own horror, in the form of an expanding, harmful creature in their habitat.
“In the early stages, it feels like a comedy,” the director stated. “However it turns into a more intense and sorrowful film. And by the end, it’s a horror film.”
The Unicorn Wars begins similar to one of the most playful features from an iconic animator, that discover a mischievous joy in allowing drawn beings curse, engage in violence, or sex each other up.
Then it becomes closer to a darker work from the same artist, with increasingly visual gore and a palpable relation to the real suffering of battle.
In the finale, it becomes a full-on theatrical horror carnage.
The terror that turns the film an ideal spooky-season viewing kicks in well before than indicated.
The Unicorn Wars is one for the hardcore fans of gore, for lovers of graphic films who wish to view something they’ve never watched previously, and can endure a narrative that offers absolutely no punches.
View it with the lights off without any distractions, and the conclusion will burrow under your skin and linger.
Where to watch: Accessible via streaming or buying on multiple digital platforms.
